mountain top

Chapter 105: The City of Failure and Successful People (6000-word chapter, Happy Chinese New Year!)
In the NBA, there are many cities that hate Qin Yue, and Cleveland is definitely on the list.

To this day, "The.Dunk" completed by Qin Yue last season is still one of the most viewed videos on YouTube.

If you don't understand the history of the rise and fall of Cleveland's sports, it will be difficult for you to understand why Qin Yue's "The.Dunk" caused such great harm to Cleveland fans.

"It turns out that Cleveland's famous scene curse is still continuing. They are destined to live in other people's stories by becoming other people's background boards."

The above evaluation comes from ESPN's summary when it selected Qin Yue's "The.Dunk" as the best dunk of the NBA year (2005).

Nowadays, when people mention Cleveland, they automatically think of failure or an unhappy life. But in fact, a few decades ago, Cleveland sports fans lived in a completely different world.

During that time, K City sports fans were full of expectations for success.

Led by Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, the Browns thrashed the Baltimore Colts 27-0 and won the 1964 NFL Championship (predecessor to the Super Bowl).

At that time, no one in Cleveland organized a parade because this was the Browns' fourth championship in 15 years, and local sports fans in Cleveland were already accustomed to success and were looking forward to the next success.

then
The nightmare of the city of Cleveland began.

If the people of Cleveland at the time knew that they would experience repeated failures in the decades to come, they would definitely regret why they did not hold that championship parade.

In the 1986 AFC Finals, the Browns led the Denver Broncos 6-20 with 13 minutes left. The Browns fans at the scene were even celebrating the team's first trip to the Super Bowl. However, in the last minute of regular time, legendary quarterback John Elway successfully found Mark Jackson and sent the game into overtime with a touchdown pass.

This is the famous "that play" in Cleveland sports history.

In overtime, the Broncos' barefoot kicker Richie Carliles scored a 33-yard field goal, bringing the city of Cleveland within a whisker of a Super Bowl final.

A year later, the Browns and the Denver Broncos faced off again at Mile High Stadium.

Ernest Byner, who scored two touchdowns for the Browns that night, had the opportunity to become a hero in Cleveland, but in the final moments of the game, with a clear path ahead and a direct chance to score a touchdown, Byner unexpectedly dropped the ball.

This mistake, known as "the drop" by Cleveland sports fans, caused the Browns to miss the Super Bowl final again.

Moreover, what is most heartbreaking for Knicks sports fans is that Byner, who was traded to the Washington Redskins in 1989, won the Super Bowl with the Redskins two years later.

It's a quintessential Cleveland story.

But it's just part of a long line of Cleveland sports history from one failure to the next.

In 1997, when the Indians were just three outs away from winning the world championship, the staff at the scene began to deliver champagne to the Indians' locker room.

However, reliever Jose Mesa made a Byner-style disastrous mistake, allowing Moises Alou and Charles Johnson to each complete a hit, and Craig Counsell's sacrifice hit tied the score for the Florida Marlins.

In the end, the Indians suffered a reversal.

From football to baseball, you can always count on Cleveland to deliver.

What about basketball?

Sorry, but Cleveland's basketball history is probably even funnier than its football and baseball history.

In 1982, the New York Times, fed up with the situation, commented on Ted Stepien, then owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers: "Mr. Ted, you are absolutely the worst owner in basketball history. Complete."

Because in 1981, Stepien Williams traded the Cavaliers' first-round draft pick to the Lakers in exchange for the Lakers' scraps.
I have no idea how valuable the Cavaliers' first-round draft pick is.

Since the Cavaliers only won 1981 games in the 1982/15 season, they won the lottery as they wished in an era without lottery rules. Oh, no, they helped the defending champion Lakers win the No. pick.

Since then, the Lakers have become the first defending champion in NBA history to hold the No. 1 pick.

Later, in order to prevent all teams in the league from following the Lakers' example and deceiving Stepien, the big fool.
The coalition was forced to introduce the famous "Ted Stepien Clause".

This means that a team is not allowed to trade its first-round draft pick for two consecutive years.

In 1984, Stern, who succeeded O'Brien as the new president of the league, had to find the Gund brothers (the owners of the Cavaliers' home court Gund Stadium) with a very sincere attitude in order to help Cleveland get rid of Stepien.
As it turned out, the Gund brothers' takeover did give Cavaliers fans hope.

then
The Cleveland Cavaliers, who rose to prominence in the late 80s, unfortunately became the backdrop for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

In 1989, Jordan eliminated the Cavaliers with the world-famous "The Shot".

In the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers were once again defeated by the Bulls led by Jordan.

In the 1993 Eastern Conference semifinals, it was still Jordan.

This time, Jordan didn't give the Cavaliers fans any hope, and directly led the Bulls to sweep the Cavaliers. But in the fourth game of the playoffs, Jordan used his second "The.Shot" to kill the Cavaliers and successfully opened the old scars of the Cleveland people.

In the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 1994, the Cavaliers, who finally waited for Jordan to go play baseball, still failed to complete their revenge.

And during Jordan's comeback and establishment of the Bulls' second dynasty, they became the background board for the Bulls and Jordan for the fifth time.

Over the past decade, the team faced the Bulls five times in the playoffs and lost all five games.

Cleveland - this city that always fails, this city that always lives in other people's stories, from "that attack" and "that drop" back then, to Jordan's "that shot" and Qin Yue's "that dunk" last season.
For decades, they have never succeeded, as if the city is destined to accept failure again and again.

Therefore, when the Golden State Warriors, led by Qin Yue, won the championship again after 31 years.
The people of Cleveland, who could only envy, hate, and even go crazy, how could they not hate Qin Yue, how could they not hate "that dunk" of his?
11 month 5 day.

As soon as he stepped into the Quicken Loans Center, Qin Yue felt the resentment of the Cleveland people towards him.

In the stands, Cavaliers fans held up various banners.

“You don’t get our approval!”

"Steve Nash is the real MVP!"

"You and your team are just upstarts!"

"You can't win even one more championship!"

From these slogans that passed the review, Qin Yue fully felt how sour the people of Cleveland are.

There is also the cartoon used to mock himself - it is a white boy wearing James' No. 23 jersey. He is seen holding up a cartoon of himself putting a crown on James.

It's really a lemon-scented stadium.

At this moment, Qin Yue, who has always taken Grant Hill as his role model, could only thoughtfully make a "0" with his left hand and a "1" with his right hand to remind these forgetful Cavaliers fans:
——I am the grand champion, what kind of champion are you?
What kind of champions are you?
Has Cleveland won any championships in these decades?
At the Quick Loans Arena, facing Qin Yue's blatant provocation, the furious Cavaliers fans immediately responded to him with boos that resounded through the dome.

But what happens after the response?

Without a championship, Cavaliers fans are doomed to be furious and helpless.

At the same time, in the Cavaliers' half, O'Neal also noticed the subtle change in James' expression.

"Aren't you going to say hello to him?" O'Neal asked, turning his eyes to James.

Hearing this, James smiled bitterly and said, "The Cavaliers fans won't allow me to say hello to him."

Do true brothers really care about the opinions and views of the fans?
O'Neal knew very well that James was just making excuses for not wanting to say hello to Qin Yue.

It is obvious that the "brotherhood" between him and Qin Yue is far from as beautiful as people imagine.

However, O'Neal did not have the time to think about and dig deep into the "brotherhood" between Qin Yue and James. Because after being exiled to Cleveland by the Heat, the former No. 1 center in the league had long lost his former happiness and the smile that was always on his face.

During the pre-match warm-up phase, before this highly anticipated battle officially kicked off, the head coaches of the two teams had a pleasant conversation.

From being Mike Brown's assistant coach to successfully coaching the defending champions, Mike Malone has become the "man of destiny" in the NBA coaching circle who is envied by his colleagues.

"It must be hard to coach a great player like Messiah?" Mike Brown asked.

Malone, who felt that Brown was using his own experience to speculate on his current coaching situation in the Warriors, smiled and said, "Fortunately, the Messiah has always respected me."

Respected?

Brown, who is usually honest and simple, doesn't quite believe what Malone said at this moment.

Because except for a few players, is there any star player in the NBA who doesn't make things difficult for the head coach?
Among them, some are mavericks, some do not obey orders, and some demand privileges. In short, none of the bosses of NBA teams are easy to deal with.

For example, Brown, on some nights when James took away the tactical board, he could only smile and listen to James's tactical arrangements.

"Compared to being the Messiah, I think getting along with role players is a very brain-intensive task." After a pause, Malone complained to Brown.

Seeing this, Brown was puzzled and said: "Why is it difficult to get along with role players? Most of them will obey the arrangements and at most complain about the playing time."

At this moment, Malone felt that Brown could not understand his situation and feelings at all.

He has been with the Cavaliers, and he knows very well that the "King's Guards" carefully selected by the Cavaliers' uniform team for James are basically players who are very easy to get along with.

After all, how bad-tempered and difficult to manage can a player be who is willing to come to Cleveland to play and stay in this "losing city"?

"You have a good lineup, and I feel you have great hope this year." Malone commented at the end of the chat.

In response to Malone's compliment, Brown smiled and said, "You too."

Quick Loans Center.

After the entrance ceremony, James' action of spreading magnesium powder in front of the technical table excited the fans on the scene.

Because soon after, the Kings' Guards came on the court under the leadership of the Kings: Big Z, Gooden, James, Pavlovic, and Mo.

Although James said in an interview a few days ago that the Cavaliers' lineup still needs to be strengthened, it must be stated that under various constraints, the Cavaliers' uniform team has done their best this summer. Since purchasing the Cavaliers, Cavaliers owner Gilbert has not always met James' requests, but at least he has tried his best to meet them.

However.
Since everyone knows about Cleveland's "glorious" sports history, how many people in the NBA are willing to play for this city?
For a long time, even with James
It is also difficult for the Cavaliers' uniform team to catch a truly big fish in the free agent market.

And the Cavaliers' management team also has to rack their brains when it comes to trades with other teams.

Because generally speaking, when the Cavaliers want to make a trade with other teams, they are often met with huge demands from the other side.

This is the mental inertia left by the Cavaliers' overly "brilliant" team history to other NBA teams.

After all, it's the Cavaliers you're making a deal with, wouldn't it make you look stupid if you don't take the opportunity to ask for more chips?
Moreover, since some players will even publicly declare that they are unwilling to play for the Cavaliers when they learn that they are being traded to the Cavaliers, the Cavaliers' uniform team is often forced to narrow their selection range.

Historically, it was in this context that the Cavaliers' uniform team put together the "Cavaliers First Phase" team for James.

Perhaps, the players of the "Cavaliers' first generation" were not good enough in the eyes of some fans, and even dragged down LeBron James, whose "greatness needs no words."

But Gilbert and the Cavaliers' uniform team are absolutely worthy of James.

Cleveland never failed their King.

In order to keep this chosen one who might change the fate of the city of K, they work hard every day and rack their brains every night.

Even in the "Second Phase of the Cavaliers", even though the city of Cleveland could not bring Gilbert the same return on investment as other teams when he was spending money lavishly. Gilbert never hesitated about paying the luxury tax.

Tonight, countless K City fans hope that their king can lead this brand new King's Guards to defeat the bastard who dared to rub salt into their wounds.

On the court, the game officially began as Brown won the ball for the Warriors.

The Cavaliers' defensive strategy tonight was very interesting.

Because Mike Brown used the true diamond formation of one-on-four.

Big Z sits under the basket.

Gooden and Pavlovic both raised their defensive positions very high, controlling the front lines on both sides, one on the left and one on the right.

Xiao Mo stood alone at the top of the arc.

And James will execute the one-on-four combo.

Seeing this, Mike Malone on the Warriors bench immediately showed a disdainful smile.

Before the one-on-four combo was widely used by NBA teams, this tactic from high school and amateur competitions was never accepted by coaches of NBA teams.

It’s not that this tactic is not good enough, but coaches of NBA teams generally believe that this is a defensive strategy that only children will use.

In addition, since one-on-four defense is essentially a type of zone defense.
Then in Malone's eyes, how could the Cavaliers' one-on-four defense possibly stump Qin Yue, who had already experienced a similar one-on-four defense last season?
球场上，在指挥队友以1-3-1阵型落位后，站住罚球线的秦岳立马便迫使骑士的一盯四联变成了2-3联防。

In order to save face in front of his good brother, James always clung to Qin Yue, and used his star whistle to protect him and kept pulling Qin Yue's jersey.
But Qin Yue, who successfully forced the Cavaliers' defense into a 2-3 zone, still made James feel what it means that strength is justice and height is truth.

James's half-circle failed to prevent the tall and long-armed Qin Yue from catching the ball. Then, Qin Yue, who was also protected by a star whistle, directly pushed James away with his left hand.

One step before the free throw line, Qin Yue forced his way out and took a shot.

Swish-!
When retreating, looking at James who was already frowning, Qin Yue smiled and said, "Why is your defense so soft? Don't be like this, otherwise I will be embarrassed if I score too easily."

At this moment, looking at Qin Yue's back, James was extremely depressed.

This summer, he also worked hard to build up his muscles.
But Qin Yue was able to easily chase him away just now.

Because the scoring system of the [Mountain Top] system is too strict, even though Qin Yue has obtained a strength score of 91 in the visualized data, he can only understand his actual strength level through Grover's evaluation of him.

Grover described this: "Because you have great explosive power, when you break through with all your strength, I conservatively estimate that there should be no more than five players in the NBA who can stop you with brute force.

But even if they can stop you with brute force, what's the use? As long as your long legs find a gap, can they still catch up with you? "

This is what Jerry West saw: Qin Yue's misalignment advantage, which could only be described as devastating.

His pair of long legs are more than enough to charm thousands of girls.
In fact, every time he trained Qin Yue, Grover wished he could sleep with his arms around Qin Yue's thighs.

You know, that's a pair of long legs that all basketball players dream of.

On the court, looking back, since Malone labeled this game as "unimportant" before the game, the Warriors' outside line was basically unguarded.

The wings, including Artest, were intentionally or unintentionally letting James shoot.

Seeing this, James, realizing that there was not much chance of a breakthrough, decisively passed the ball to Mo Williams.

After getting the ball, Xiao Mo shot calmly and hit a long-distance two-pointer from the top of the arc.

Immediately afterwards, James once again raised the physical confrontation he gave to Qin Yue.

Before the start of this season, James weighed more than 260 pounds (118 kg).

If we only look at the bench press and other results, his strength attribute can get a score of more than 88 even under the [Mountain Top] system's scoring system.

But since entering the league, James' biggest problem is that he has never really honed his defensive skills.

During this period, James' defensive tactics were nothing more than two moves.

The first move is called expulsion.

The second move is called crushing.

Driving away means that in order to save energy, James will often take the initiative to let the opponent's offensive players break into the Cavaliers' restricted area, and use his physical talent and the Cavaliers' inside height to complete subsequent chase blocks, as well as force the opponent's offense to fail through strong interference.

Crushing means that when facing an opponent who he can bully with his physical talents, James, who has the protection of a star referee, will, with the tacit approval of the referee, show his toughness by increasing intensity on the opponent, thereby making the opponent feel fearful in his heart.

But whether it is driving away or crushing, James is using his historical physical talent to complete the defense.

With the defensive strategy developed by Mike Brown around him, James can certainly put up excellent defensive data on the technical statistics panel, but once he encounters opponents in the game who he cannot suppress with his physical talents, he can easily be helpless.

Historically, the players who were able to put up impressive numbers against James in the finals are the best proof of this.

On the court, after a pick-and-roll and a hand-off, Qin Yue received the ball near the free throw line again and successfully gained space to start dribbling with a powerful blast.

James' lateral movement speed during this period was definitely not slow, but he lost his defensive focus too early and was easily left behind by Qin Yue.

In the Knights' penalty area, the King's Guards, attracted by Qin Yue's breakthrough, desperately blocked Qin Yue's next route of advance.

But they were helpless in the face of Qin Yue's subsequent long-distance throw.

This is a new skill that Qin Yue has been training hard under Grover's guidance this summer.

Although Qin Yue had finished the game with a lob shot in his rookie season, he still has a long way to go to turn it into a truly unsolvable skill, even if he has put in a lot of effort this summer.

What is the difficulty in this technique of throwing?
Is it the action of throwing the ball?

of course not.

The real difficulty of the lob technique lies in the grasp of the distance, the control of the hand feel, and whether the basketball can be thrown steadily to the basket after physical contact as in training.

Grover is looking forward to Qin Yue being able to master this technique in the future.

Because considering Qin Yue's height and wingspan, when he is making a jump shot on the court and doesn't understand, he asks, what on earth should the defense do to stop him?

At this moment, Big Z, Gooden and Pavlovic, who had arrived in the penalty area one after another, could only stare at Qin Yue's extremely high parabolic shot.

Swish-!
The next second, the basketball fell into the net and the Cavaliers players could only sigh in turn.

Seeing this, Qin Yue smiled at James who was about to receive the ball from the baseline and said, "Has no one ever taught you how to defend? Look, your teammates were all sighing because of your defense just now."

The knights said: “.”

James: "."

On the Cavaliers bench, O'Neal felt relieved when he saw Qin Yue, who was not willing to let go of even his good brother.

However.
Just when O'Neal was wondering whether the "brotherhood" between Qin Yue and James was just a plastic friendship or just a superficial one, Qin Yue, who happened to be passing by the Cavaliers' bench, did not forget to "kick" O'Neal, "Oh, the No. 1 center can only be a substitute for 'Big Z' now?"

O’Neal: “.”

There is no doubt that at this moment Qin Yue looked like a village bully who would even kick dogs passing by on the roadside in the village.

It's a pity that facing this extremely arrogant village bully.
None of the knights dared to respond.

On the Warriors bench, Mike Malone yawned and said, "The character of the star player often determines the character of the team.

Our Messiah is undoubtedly a player with a great character.

As for LeBron? I can only hope that he can grow up soon. "

……

PS: Happy Chinese New Year, here comes a 6000-word chapter! Please subscribe and give me a monthly ticket!
(End of this chapter)